Living With Ghosts

x.x.x

Seto stubbornly refused to look behind him, not even the littlest peek. Suppressing a growl of irritation, he muttered to the boy walking beside him, "Is he still back there?"

Yugi looked back over his shoulder for at least the umpteenth time that day. Noa Kaiba spotted Yugi looking back at him, and hurried to look like he only coincidentally happened to be following them, studying the ground very intently.

Yugi sighed, facing forward again and murmuring, "Yep. Still back there."

"Damn it." Seto scowled. "He's been following us all day. What the hell does he want?"

"Maybe he wants his cards back?" Mokuba piped up from the other side of Seto. "They are rare cards, really nice condition too. Must have cost him a lot of money."

"Well, he can't have them. I won those cards fairly, and they're mine now," Seto said.  "He should just buy small country to entertain himself with, and quit tagging along behind us like some dog. We've already got Joey, we don't need another canine…"

"That's really not a nice thing to call Joey," Yugi said, even though he told that to Seto on average of five times a day.

Seto brightened a little for the first time since Noa started following them. "I know, but he'd make such a cute little puppy, wouldn't he?"

"Like a golden retriever!" Mokuba added, giggling at the image. "All golden fur, with brown puppy-dog eyes…"

They stopped outside of Joey's house, just as Joey opened the door and announced, "I heard that." He gestured for them to wait a moment, leaning against the doorframe as he finished up the phone conversation he was having. "Mmm-hmm… yeah, I miss you too, Serenity. Look, I gotta go, but I'll call back tonight, okay?… Yeah. Bye." Not bothering to return the phone to its proper place, Joey just chucked it back inside, and casually ducked the sneaker that was thrown back at him in return. Slamming the door before his father could throw any more junk at him, Joey kicked the shoe off the stairs as he joined his little group of friends.

"Hey guys," Joey murmured, his usually cheerful attitude lacking a little bit. "Sorry to make you wait, I was on the phone with my sister and sort of lost track of time…"

"Something wrong with Serenity?" Yugi asked, frowning at his friend's uncharacteristic quietness.

Joey shrugged as they all started walking. "Well, we're not sure, really. She's never had real great eyesight, but it seems to be getting worse, you know? Like, too bad to be corrected with glasses. She may need this big expensive operation to fix it, and sure as hell nobody in my family can afford it." He glanced at Seto. "Kinda wish you had been adopted by the Kaibas, then you could loan me a few million dollars."

Seto shrugged, and gestured behind them. "You want to talk to a Kaiba, there's one following us right now."

Joey blinked, glancing back at the Noa walking behind them at a distance. Frowning, he looked back at Seto. "Why is Noa Kaiba following us?"

"We don't know," Yugi said. "But he's been back there ever since we left Grandpa's store. Every time we look back, he pretends he doesn't see us. I think he wants to get the Blue Eyes White Dragon cards back from Seto."

"Ohh…" Joey grinned, a little of his usual cheerfulness coming back as he looked back to Seto. "Want me to pound him for you?"

Seto shook his head. "If it ever comes to that, I'll probably just do it myself. But thanks for the offer."

"Well, maybe we can lose him," Mokuba suggested. "Burger World is just a few blocks up, we could just run for it."

"Worth a try," Yugi murmured. "On three, okay? One… two…"

Noa blinked in surprise as the people he was tagging along behind suddenly up and started running. Abandoning what little pretense of being casual that he had, he quickly gave chase after the four, even as he cursed himself for his total lack of tact. His father would yell at him until his face turned purple if he knew what a pathetic fool his son was making of himself, but Noa couldn't seem to help it. He'd had the awful urge to see what Seto was doing today- hell, just to see Seto. Surely there were better ways of doing this, but…

…well, none of that mattered now. What mattered now was catching up to Seto!

"I think we lost him!" Yugi panted softly as they all but burst in through the doors of Burger World.

"Hey guys…" Téa Gardner, one of Yugi's friends who sometimes spent time with the whole group, happened to work at Burger World, making the fast food restaurant a convenient place for them all to hang out. Téa blinked at the four of them panting to catch their breath. "What's chasing you all?"

"Never mind, let's just hope it didn't follow us," Seto muttered.

Téa shrugged. "You want the usual table?"

"Maybe something a little further away from the window today," Yugi said, grinning at her. "If it's not too much trouble."

"None at all," Téa laughed, "I get paid either way."

She led them to a table to one side of the restaurant. Just as they were all sitting down, Noa came in through the front door, glancing around wildly, clearly searching for someone.

"Oh no…" Seto groaned. He grabbed Téa's arm before she could move off to greet the new customer. "Téa. Whatever you do, do not sit him near us."

Téa blinked at him, then smiled sweetly. "Oh? How much are you going to tip me?"

He glowered at her. Téa laughed, patting his shoulder and slipping her arm from his grip. "Don't worry," she murmured softly. "I'll take care of it."

Téa smoothed her skirt, then called out to Noa in a bright voice as she approached. "Why hello there! Please allow me to show you to your seat, sir!" Grabbing a hold of Noa's arm firmly, she all but dragged him toward the opposite side of the restaurant, ignoring every one of his flustered protests.

Everyone at Yugi's table was hard-pressed to stifle their laughter. "Maybe we should give her more of a tip than usual," Seto murmured with amusement. "It would be worth it to have seen her haul him across the room like that."

"Yeah, now we can finally eat in peace," Joey said. "Good thing too, 'cuz I'm starving!"

x.x.x

The normally empty and pristine dining room of Maximillion Pegasus was currently filled with so many boxes, it was impossible to move from one end to the other without tripping on a few. Pegasus was really tired of it all. He would be really relieved once all of those packages had been mailed out.

The boxes were a part of his most recent brilliant scheme, though recently he was beginning to doubt it had been all that brilliant after all. He was planning a giant Duel Monsters tournament, to take place on his very own private island. (Sometimes he wondered if wanting his own private island somehow put him in the category of supervillain.) Pegasus was inviting the very best duelists from all across the world to participate in his tournament, but that was all mostly for show. There was only one person that it was critical for them to attend. Yugi Motou would be receiving a slightly different package than all of the others, to assure that he would show up. Or rather, that the spirit inhabiting the Millennium Puzzle would show up.

Pegasus sighed, kicking away a few boxes so he could pull out a chair from the table and sit down. Lightly he traced his fingertips over the golden design of his Millennium Eye. All of this pomp and ceremony, just to get one small boy to attend. All on the hope that he could defeat that small boy in a duel and win the coveted Millennium Puzzle. All of this… just for her.

He looked up at the portrait, one of his favorites of all the paintings he'd done, the picture of his beloved wife. This whole silly tournament was for her, just so Pegasus could hopefully get a hold of a magic so ancient and powerful, he could actually bring her back into his life.

He hoped if and when he finally could bring her back, she wouldn't hate him for the methods he used to obtain that power.

It was cruel, what he was planning to do, manipulating children like this. It sickened him if he thought about it to long. He didn't want to hurt anybody… he just wanted his beloved back. That was where the tournament idea had come from… maybe despite what underhanded tactics were used to bring the duelists to his island, perhaps they could all still have a little fun…

"Mr. Pegasus?"

Pegasus looked up as one of his servants stumbled into the room, carefully trying to avoid all the piles of boxes. "We've got the mailing list here. There are a few names you haven't approved yet for the guest list…"

"Let me see…" Pegasus took the list, scanning down it. There were a few names he only vaguely recognized… Seto Nishimura, Joey Wheeler, Duke Devlin, Ryou Bakura, and a handful of others. But he was tired of all this, and didn't feel like taking the time to investigate all of them. After all, only Yugi Motou mattered when it came right down to it. "Sure, whatever, add them to the mailing list and send out all these packages as soon as possible."

His servant nodded and quickly excused himself. Pegasus sat back in his chair, his gaze sweeping over the piles of boxes once more.

"Well, that's it then," Pegasus murmured. "Let the games begin."